THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT WAS very gratifying to see the Jamaica Red Poll Cattle Breeders Society supplement in The Gleaner of Thursday, November 14, 2002, celebrating 50 years of progress in the development of this breed of cattle.
A similar supplement involving the Jamaica Hope Dairy breed of cattle was done in June of this year. I am sure that we were all very proud of the work that was done by Dr. T.P. Lecky and his colleagues.
These two events were expected to augur well for the future of livestock development in Jamaica and other tropical countries, but when we look at the state of our livestock industry today, we can only ask the question, where have we gone wrong?
As far as milk production is concerned, in the late eighties and early nineties, we were able to produce up to 50 million quarts of fresh milk per annum. In the last few years of the nineties and up to the present time, our production has declined to less than 15 million litres per annum.
In the case of beef, three breeds of cattle were developed over the years via the Jamaica Red, Jamaica Black and Braham. These herds have been severely decimated because farmers have had to turn animals loose as they were unable to rear these animals to produce a viable income. Animals for slaughter that were in former years sold for anything between $8,000 to $12,000 are now fetching as little as $2,000.
The situation is worsening daily so again the question must be asked what is being done to resuscitate the livestock industry?
Thousands of acres of land are lying idle and thousands of hands cannot find work. Our lands and people are two of the main assets in our economy so that the present situation of idle land and empty hands can only lead to further degradation of our economy.
Instead of feeding ourselves we are spending millions of US dollars in purchasing tons of animal products from abroad. This importation from various areas means that the Veterinary Services have had to be extremely vigilant to prevent the introduction of exotic diseases from abroad.
Financial institutions would appear to be doing very well but what effect, if any, the apparent prosperity of this sector is having on our productivity?
It is high time that those in authority indicate to the country what plans they have for the alleviation of our poverty through the development of our natural resources as we cannot continue to depend on others to provide our sustenance.
I am, etc.,
C.L. BENT
P.O. Box 466
Kingston 6
